thebradholt
0129 Brad, Cameron, Kitty oint at you by Denton sign
January 29
Hang on to your seats. Today was a day.
At work I helped Ahna shoot an interview with another dude for the QEP video. After we packed up the gear, I made another Brenizer attempt, and this one was a success! I have a feeling Iâm going to keep shooting these things until I can consistently merge them successfully.
For lunch we decided to eat at the Union. Michael, Ahna, and I got our food and sat down, but before we could even start eating, the fire alarm went off. The entire UNT Union had to be evacuated, and the soundtrack to that evac was a woman who I guess was in charge of a busload of high schoolers there on tour. That woman would not stop shouting at those poor kids. Itâs like she didnât even give them a chance to disappoint her. She already hated them all merely for existing in her presence.
Tonight was the big night. The Black Film Festival here in Denton had accepted Family Dinner II and screened it at the Campus Theater. Michael, Ahna, and I drove over there an hour or so early to shoot a few hyperlapses for our Denton video. We had a bit of time left after the shoot, so we grabbed a drink at Service Industry. Iâve only heard awful things about the place, and this was my first time visiting. The verdict: Itâs fine. Normal drinks, average food, and the place was completely empty. Itâll die this year. But I digress. On to the big event!
Michael and Ahna each bought tickets to the show, as did my entire family. They were already coming up to do Cameronâs birthday celebration, so the screening was a perfect addition. Before the show started, a familiar face walked on stage. James Martin, who taught my editing class back in college, somehow plays a role in the film festival. Iâm not sure what role that is, because he had no microphone. He just made some sounds up there, we clapped, and then the show began.
Actually, it wasnât Snarky Puppy that went on first. Instead, they started with a short film starring Jessica Williams from the Daily Show. Weird, but I guess it IS a film festival, so that makes sense. The movie was fine. Then, finally, it was time for the people to see Family Dinner! What happened next is easily the worst theater experience of my entire life.
The opening titles seemed normal, as far as I could remember them, but as soon as video footage was onscreen, I knew something was wrong. Every 10 frames or so, the image would freeze and then stutter-play for a few frames before freezing again. It was HUGELY distracting. Even when footage played back rather than freezing, it was out of sync with the audio, which played back fine, despite the theaterâs GLARING lack of subwoofers.
While this train wreck was playing on screen, the staff photographer for the festival wandered around on the stage taking pictures of us watching the screen...USING ON-CAMERA FLASH. The dude wasnât even discreet about it either. Heâd fire off 5-6 frames, look at the camera (I assume trying to figure out why his pictures looked so awful), and then fire off a few more. It was TERRIBLE.
This went on for 15-20 minutesâwe made it through two songs and the interview in-betweenâbefore they finally stopped the movie. James Martin came back onstage, again without a mic, mumbled something about technology, and then left. The crowd sat there for a few minutes, talking and trying to make sense of the situation, and then suddenly Chris McQueen was on stage. Andy and Mike missed their flight this morning and werenât going to make it. I was relieved to hear the news, because Iâm pretty sure Andy would be lighting torches at this point. So, to vamp, Chris started the Q&A session, even though weâd only seen 15 minutes of stuttering footage. I really shouldâve joined him up there, in hindsight.
Another 15-ish minutes went by, and just as Chris started to answer somebodyâs question, James popped out again and stopped him. âWeâre back on!â he shouted with glee.
They decided to start the film from where we left off for some reason, and when the image came up, I could see the Vimeo play bar at the bottom of the screen, and the buffer wasnât growing. Uh oh. They hit play, and we watched 20 seconds of the movie before the first hiccup. Then, about every 15 seconds the playback would stop to buffer. We only had to suffer a few minutes of this before they stopped the movie again.
The next time it came on, it was abundantly clear that they had just turned off HD to help the buffer. Of course, a side-effect to that brilliant idea was that they were showing a standard-def image on a giant movie screen.
This is when we walked out.
All of us. Me, my parents, my brother and sister, Wayne and Treva, Michael and Ahna. The whole row stood up and left together. It was bad.
We had a nice dinner at 940âs, where we got to commiserate with one another about what had just happened. Cameron and Kitty had the brilliant idea to take a new version of this photo where we all point at you. I imagine itâll end up printed and on the wall in Aledo next to two others.
Back at Westridge, Cameron opened his birthday presents and we had cake while our adrenaline subsided. After Mom and Dad left, I went out for drinks with Ahna and her people. The story needed to be told! And now, it has.
0129 Brad, Cameron, Kitty oint at you by Denton sign
January 29
Hang on to your seats. Today was a day.
At work I helped Ahna shoot an interview with another dude for the QEP video. After we packed up the gear, I made another Brenizer attempt, and this one was a success! I have a feeling Iâm going to keep shooting these things until I can consistently merge them successfully.
For lunch we decided to eat at the Union. Michael, Ahna, and I got our food and sat down, but before we could even start eating, the fire alarm went off. The entire UNT Union had to be evacuated, and the soundtrack to that evac was a woman who I guess was in charge of a busload of high schoolers there on tour. That woman would not stop shouting at those poor kids. Itâs like she didnât even give them a chance to disappoint her. She already hated them all merely for existing in her presence.
Tonight was the big night. The Black Film Festival here in Denton had accepted Family Dinner II and screened it at the Campus Theater. Michael, Ahna, and I drove over there an hour or so early to shoot a few hyperlapses for our Denton video. We had a bit of time left after the shoot, so we grabbed a drink at Service Industry. Iâve only heard awful things about the place, and this was my first time visiting. The verdict: Itâs fine. Normal drinks, average food, and the place was completely empty. Itâll die this year. But I digress. On to the big event!
Michael and Ahna each bought tickets to the show, as did my entire family. They were already coming up to do Cameronâs birthday celebration, so the screening was a perfect addition. Before the show started, a familiar face walked on stage. James Martin, who taught my editing class back in college, somehow plays a role in the film festival. Iâm not sure what role that is, because he had no microphone. He just made some sounds up there, we clapped, and then the show began.
Actually, it wasnât Snarky Puppy that went on first. Instead, they started with a short film starring Jessica Williams from the Daily Show. Weird, but I guess it IS a film festival, so that makes sense. The movie was fine. Then, finally, it was time for the people to see Family Dinner! What happened next is easily the worst theater experience of my entire life.
The opening titles seemed normal, as far as I could remember them, but as soon as video footage was onscreen, I knew something was wrong. Every 10 frames or so, the image would freeze and then stutter-play for a few frames before freezing again. It was HUGELY distracting. Even when footage played back rather than freezing, it was out of sync with the audio, which played back fine, despite the theaterâs GLARING lack of subwoofers.
While this train wreck was playing on screen, the staff photographer for the festival wandered around on the stage taking pictures of us watching the screen...USING ON-CAMERA FLASH. The dude wasnât even discreet about it either. Heâd fire off 5-6 frames, look at the camera (I assume trying to figure out why his pictures looked so awful), and then fire off a few more. It was TERRIBLE.
This went on for 15-20 minutesâwe made it through two songs and the interview in-betweenâbefore they finally stopped the movie. James Martin came back onstage, again without a mic, mumbled something about technology, and then left. The crowd sat there for a few minutes, talking and trying to make sense of the situation, and then suddenly Chris McQueen was on stage. Andy and Mike missed their flight this morning and werenât going to make it. I was relieved to hear the news, because Iâm pretty sure Andy would be lighting torches at this point. So, to vamp, Chris started the Q&A session, even though weâd only seen 15 minutes of stuttering footage. I really shouldâve joined him up there, in hindsight.
Another 15-ish minutes went by, and just as Chris started to answer somebodyâs question, James popped out again and stopped him. âWeâre back on!â he shouted with glee.
They decided to start the film from where we left off for some reason, and when the image came up, I could see the Vimeo play bar at the bottom of the screen, and the buffer wasnât growing. Uh oh. They hit play, and we watched 20 seconds of the movie before the first hiccup. Then, about every 15 seconds the playback would stop to buffer. We only had to suffer a few minutes of this before they stopped the movie again.
The next time it came on, it was abundantly clear that they had just turned off HD to help the buffer. Of course, a side-effect to that brilliant idea was that they were showing a standard-def image on a giant movie screen.
This is when we walked out.
All of us. Me, my parents, my brother and sister, Wayne and Treva, Michael and Ahna. The whole row stood up and left together. It was bad.
We had a nice dinner at 940âs, where we got to commiserate with one another about what had just happened. Cameron and Kitty had the brilliant idea to take a new version of this photo where we all point at you. I imagine itâll end up printed and on the wall in Aledo next to two others.
Back at Westridge, Cameron opened his birthday presents and we had cake while our adrenaline subsided. After Mom and Dad left, I went out for drinks with Ahna and her people. The story needed to be told! And now, it has.